NRA and Farm Bureau Oppose Crackdown on Iowa Puppy Mills
“Passagecould get complicated because powerful lobbyists such as the Farm
Bureau and National Rifle Association line up against it.” – Des Moines Register
Note from BFIA: Here we go again with the “powerful lobbyists.” When will the storyline ever read, “Powerful, ordinary Iowans want this legislation, so it will happen?”
You may ask yourself, why does the NRA care about puppy mill legislation? Answer: They want an exception for hunting dogs. The NRA apparently does not feel that puppies who could eventually become hunting dogs deserve the same protections as other puppies. As for why the Farm Bureau cares, they are concerned that people will start wanting to protect livestock from being abused (even though last year's version of the proposed legislation explicitly exempted livestock).
Blog for Iowa posted about this last legislative session. See Another Kind of Factory Farm in Iowa: Let State Inspectors Into Puppy Mills, along with a DMReg. article by John Carlson (DMReg. has since taken this down, but you can get the gist of it at the BFIA link). Also, Humanity Even for Non-humans by Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times is an excellent related read.The Humane Society of the United States reported in March of 2009:
The new legislation would give the Iowa Department of Agriculture the
authority to inspect these facilities if they receive complaints.“
reveals that 86 percent of Iowa voters support legislation that would
strengthen protections for dogs in large-scale breeding facilities
known as puppy mills, while only 9 percent oppose tougher
regulations. Overwhelming margins in every demographic group — men,
women, Democrats, Republicans and Independents — support legislation to
crack down on puppy mills.”
Here is the Des Moines Register's take on the issue for the 2010 legislative session in today's paper:
PUPPY MILLS: Dog breeders would have to pay a higher license fee under this proposal, meant to crack down on animal abuse.
Currently only federal inspectors can investigate a complaint about a facility certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some lawmakers think state inspectors would do a better job.
Iowa's Republican agriculture secretary, Bill Northey, and his staff “were very helpful with agreeing to inspect if we hold them harmless financially,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines.
So if lawmakers raise fees for inspections, the money would go directly to the ag department for its inspections costs. The fee possibly could be on a sliding scale so breeders who sell 1,000 dogs a year would pay more than those who sell 25. Some, but not all, Democratic lawmakers like this idea, as well as a handful of Republicans. Passage could get complicated because powerful lobbyists such as the Farm Bureau and National Rifle Association line up against it. The NRA is asking for an exemption for hunting dogs. (click here to read the entire DMReg story).
We should act quickly. The 2010 session has been shortened to 80 days instead of the usual 100 to save money.
Blog For Iowa 
Many blessings to all who work to make animals’ lives better. WE ARE THEIR VOICE! So I am using my voice to post this repeatedly, until it somehow falls into the hands of someone who has the authority and the courage to help us put an end to puppy and kitten mills forever.
And these Mill owners need to be getting a real job.
PUPPY AND KITTEN MILLS ARE GLUTTING THE SYSTEM
We will euthanize thousands of pets today at our animal shelters and city Animal Care & Control facilities. We will euthanize thousands of pets tomorrow too, and most every day. Unless our lawmakers put an end to the mass production in puppy and kitten mills, this pet overpopulation crisis is doomed to increase. We will never be able to “rehome.” adopt, spay/neuter or even euthanize our way out of this crisis as long as these mills are churning out pets like they were food animals. This is costing our government millions of tax dollars, which are OUR TAX DOLLARS! And they are being spent to kill pets that the mills are producing. Some even sell the dead, sick and drugged (from euthanasia and illness) animals to “rendering plants” to make pet food, making our unsuspecting pets into cannibals. And the AKC IS SUPPORTING THIS CRUELTY because they make tons of money registering these poor souls. They are of no help, even though they claim to be an advocate for pets, they have fought against regulations for their care. This is a vicious circle that never ends and has become a wasteful sinkhole of our tax revenues, leading many shelters to fail for lack of funding. This revenue could certainly be better spent elsewhere. The USDA has neglected to regulate this mill production, to the point that we are glutting our own tax systems. Our government must know that this can not continue. We The People must demand that our lawmakers vote with us, and not with the Ag Industries, to STOP THIS INSANITY!
I will never understand how the USDA has any business having pets under the same regulations, (or lack thereof), as poultry, slaughter hogs and beef cattle. (But please don’t get me started on farm animal welfare)…WE DO NOT EAT DOGS AND CATS IN THIS COUNTRY! They are our pets and to some, our babies! THEY ARE NOT LIVESTOCK! And the USDA doesn’t have sufficient personnel to inspect these mills even once a year, let alone follow up visits to ensure that the infractions have been corrected. Our government must stop allowing them to be mass produced like they were food animals! And the conditions that we accept as “USDA approved” for these animals to live in, consist of a lifetime of horrific neglect and deprivation! These pets don’t even get to go to slaughter when they are old enough and fattened up. They live their entire lives in a cage, often left out in all kinds of weather, with little or no veterinary care. The female’s’ life is spent carrying, nursing, or grieving her lost babies, until she is bred yet again. Then about twice a year, the male shares her cage until mating is complete. Then he is returned to languish in his own filthy cage until it is time to breed again.
This only ends for them when they die, or become “no longer good for breeding”. Then they auction them off or kill them or just let them loose to be hit by cars, starve, be killed by a wild animal, or eventually get picked up as a stray, which is the bulk of what fills our shelters. What happens to the others is unknown. I don’t know what, if any regulations exist for their “disposal,” but dead animal carcasses have been found on the property of some of these mills.
Unfortunately, the financial influence of the Agricultural business has managed to supersede the horrific conditions of the animals, the pet overpopulation crisis, even the glutting of our own tax systems!
IF YOU SHOP AT A PET STORE THAT SELLS PETS, OR BUY A PET ONLINE, YOU ARE SUPPORTING THIS HORRIFIC CRUELTY!
Can you imagine if the beef producers were churning out millions of pounds of beef in a year, and we only ate a portion of it, and the rest had to be “disposed of” at great expense to the government? You can bet the USDA would be slapping some major restrictions on beef production. So why don’t they see that we are euthanizing millions of pets every year, and the puppy and kitten mills are “producing” a majority of them?
IS OUR GOVERNMENT REALLY SO “OWNED” BY THE PUPPY MILL/AG INDUSTRY, THAT THEY BETRAY THEIR CONSTITUENTS, PROPAGATE CRUELTY, WASTE OUR TAX DOLLARS AND GLUT THEIR OWN SYSTEMS? We must find a way to get rid of this horrific business of abuse and neglect!
Our government must act responsibly to end this.
PAMELA M. BECK
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